True story as I came into the office there was a couple of brand new unopened Yellow Books at the front door. Needless to say no one even bothered to bring them in the office. Just thought is was interesting considering this conversation. Glad to see the dialog and welcome the conversation. Very open to hearing and sharing of all views.
Seems that stream identification is not new and I would suggest that stream information is so readily available that fishing pressure is distributed across many areas. I can't imagine one source be responsible for the demise of any one waterway. For decades the PFBC, fly shops, authors, magazines, books, newspapers, guides, bloggers, anglers and websites have identified, shared, discussed and directed anglers to these waters. The amount of information being provided from all of these sources is like taking a drink from a fire hose.
My quick view at the PFBC website suggests:
There are over
730 stocked streams
Over a 200 hundred special
reg trout waters
Over 3,500 wild trout streams - it's there trust me
Thousands of miles of trout waters open to the public
Sources for stream identification information
The PFBC offers the most information about stream locations in many different forms free of charge: paper maps, online county maps, detailed stocking reports, PDF's listing Wild Brook Streams, Biologist Reports, Wild Trout Fishing Hot Spots, Trout-Stocked Fishing Hot Spots and Regional Notes from the Stream to name a few. For example in the PFBC print publication Pennsylvania Angler the May 2012 issue, Little Juniata River Float details on trout fly fishing the Little J. and this month is about Penn's! Each month the publication features a different waterway in the state. This often is online too.
TU meetings are a traditional source for stream information sharing. Not only are anglers sharing personal notes, but experts present at TU meetings providing details about streams and where to go.
At the Lancaster Fly Fishing Show thousands of people heard presentations about streams from across the state and how really great those streams can be for anglers. Someone sitting in one of those presentations is there not because they want to hear about their home waters, but wants to learn more and go fish at a new waterway.
Here are a few books the cover the subject:
Flyfisher's Guide to Pennsylvania- Dave Wolf
Trout Streams and Hatches of Pennsylvania - Charles R. Meck
Trout Streams of Pennsylvania - Dwight Landis
Trout Unlimited Guide to Pennsylvania Limestone Streams - A. Joseph Armstrong
Spring Creek Strategies - Mike Heck
Fly Fishing Pennsylvania's Spring Creek by Daniel L. Shields
Pennsylvania Blue-Ribbon Fly-Fishing Guide by Barry Beck and Cathy Beck
Print media covers this as well
Mid Atlantic Fly Fishing Guide provided free at every fly shop
Weekly Fishing Reports Pittsburgh Post Gazzette
Fly Fishermen Magazine
The number of online sources are numerous with personal blogs and micro fly fishing sites. This trend will only continue. Mobile is providing data wherever you may be and Gogal Publishing is an example of the next generation data starting to occur with their
GPS Fishing Guide to Pennsylvania on smartphones.
Real-time will continue to expand and be pushed further into mobile. Just gonna happen. At one time there were only a few computers in a few big businesses. Now we all have many computers in many locations: homes, cars, pockets, and some will be wearing them next.
I agree with several things that have been suggest, especially the idea of not talking about one stream. If we just talked about Yellow Breeches for example, yes it would get a lot of attention, but this site discusses hundreds of streams just like the PFBC. No one stream is singled out and that is why it is called Paflyfish not the Yellow Breeches Fly Fishing.
The anglers are already there. There are several shared reports on Penn's Creek during May. Just because it is reported that there are green drakes coming off on Penn's Creek in May there is still going to be plenty of anglers. There is an over whelming amount of information that directs people to the streams in our region. Plenty of people have been going to Penn's Creek and regional streams during the drake hatch well before the Internet.
There is about one stream report a year for Kettle Creek. I can guarantee that from mid April thru May that KC looks as much like a PSU Tailgater as it does a mountainous fly fishing experience.
So how do people mostly hear about streams? Ask any marketing person the best we to sell something is by word of mouth. Kettle Creek is packed with people not because of a stream report, but people telling each other where to go. Stream reports are validations to the data that people hear and read about elsewhere. People use all this data to make plans to go to places not just single sources.
If someone told me to try out a restaurant I would look up their website and then go to restaurant review site like Yelp. The last thing I am going to do is take information from some untrusted source, drive for an hour to spend $50 and risk eating some crappy food. I am going to vet out the information first.
I think the same thing is true for stream identification. One post on a site is not going to have people leave their jobs, fill up the truck for $60 and drive off to some fishing hole they never heard of before for the evening to catch that one big bow that was pictured. People hear information, collect it as pieces and make decisions on several data sources before heading out.
I think stream identification from Paflyfish is a valid and trusted source, but it is not the only one. Again thanks to everyone for their open and honest views of the situation. Personally we have a lot of issues facing our sport. Discouraging people to fish isn't one of them. Think about taking a kid fly fishing this year!!
BTW, those Yellow Page books are still sitting out by the door and have not been touched.
